House snares Lewandowski in impeachment probe

House lawmakers have been targeting former aides of
President Donald Trump who worked outside of the administration in their
sprawling but ineffectual impeachment investigation.

They want to question them about their knowledge of potential
obstruction, described in the second part of former special counsel Robert
Mueller’s report on his Russia investigation.

Their goal is to circumvent the White House’s
authority to evoke executive privilege, as it has with former White House
Counsel Don McGahn and other onetime aides, and their strategy seems to be
paying off.

They have now ensnared his former campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, who is set to testify in public before the House Judiciary Committee on September 17, according to TheDaily Beast.

Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-NY), issued a subpoena for his testimony in August. They hope he will help them create a media extravaganza to boost their impeachment push. Democrats want to keep a stench of corruption and criminality floating around the president.

The White House was reportedly considering whether to
invoke executive privilege to prevent him from complying with the subpoena. It
would have been the first time the president would have tried to assert the
privilege over someone who never worked in his administration. It appears he had
no legal grounds to go forward.

Although the president fired him in June, 2016, they have maintained a close relationship. He has been assisting him as an outside adviser since his election. Lewandowski told The Hill last Thursday he is “very close” to making a decision on whether to launch a campaign to challenge Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) in 2020.

Democrats have questions about a series of meetings
Trump had with Lewandowski in which the president directed him to persuade
former Attorney General Jeff Sessions to limit Mueller’s investigation.

Lewandowski told Mueller that Trump directed him to
tell then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions that he must constrain Mueller’s
investigation or be fired. Lewandowski, at one point, asked Dearborn to deliver
the message to Sessions instead, but Dearborn ultimately refused. He also
described a second directive to pressure Sessions to limit Mueller’s scope to
future election interference attempts.

“Corey
Lewandowski and Rick Dearborn were prominently featured in the special
counsel’s description of President Trump’s efforts to obstruct justice by
directing then-White House Counsel Don McGahn to fire the special counsel, and
then by ordering him to lie about it,” House Judiciary Committee Chairman
Nadler said in an August statement.

Democrats claim it was criminal for Trump to order
Lewandowski to inform Sessions that if he refused to meet with him he would be
fired. They also question whether there was potential witness tampering with
Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort and his former personal lawyer
Michael Cohen.

The president does have the constitutional authority
to direct his staffers to fire anyone, and the witness tampering claims have no
legal merit, or Mueller would have recommended charges.

Democrats have been fighting unsuccessfully for months
to get witnesses to answer questions. Former White House Communications
Director Hope Hicks appeared in a closed hearing before the House Judiciary
Committee in June, but she repeatedly stonewalled the lawmakers using executive
privilege or declining to answer questions.

Michael Cohen appeared publicly before the House
Oversight Committee in February before he began his prison sentence in May. He
also testified in closed hearings to the House Intelligence Committee and the
Senate Intelligence Committee.

Nadler also served subpoenas to former deputy White
House chief of staff Rick Dearborn and former White House staff secretary Rob
Porter. Both were asked to appear on Sept. 17 as well, but their testimonies
have not been confirmed.

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